Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/246

II. ‘De Incarnatione Verbi;’ ‘De Dominio Divino’ (before 1377, possibly circa 1372); ‘De Dominio Civili’ (before 1377); ‘De Ecclesia,’ 1377–8; ‘De Officio Pastorali,’ 1379; ‘De Officio Regis,’ 1379.

III. ‘Dialogus’ or ‘Speculum Ecclesie Militantis,’ 1379; ‘De Eucharistia,’ 1379–80; ‘De Simonia,’ 1379–80; ‘De Apostasia,’ ‘De Blasphemia,’ 1381–2; ‘Opus Evangelicum,’ i. ii. (mostly written after 1379); ‘Trialogus,’ 1383.

The following minor works are printed together in ‘Polemical Works,’ edited by Buddensieg, and mostly belong to the period 1382–4: ‘De Fundatione Sectarum,’ ‘De Ordinatione Fratrum,’ ‘De Nova Prævaricantia Mandatorum,’ ‘De Triplici Vinculo Amoris,’ ‘De Septem Donis Spiritus Sancti,’ ‘De Quattuor Sectis Novellis,’ ‘Purgatorium Sectæ Christi,’ ‘De novis Ordinibus,’ ‘De Oratione et Ecclesiæ Purgatione,’ ‘De Diabolo et Membris ejus,’ ‘De Detectione Perfidiarum Antichristi,’ ‘De Solucione Satanæ,’ ‘De Mendaciis Fratrum,’ ‘Descriptio Fratris,’ ‘De Dæmonio Meridiano,’ ‘De Duobus Generibus Hæreticorum,’ ‘De Religionibus Vanis Monachorum,’ ‘De Perfectione Status,’ ‘De Religione Privata,’ i. ii., ‘De Citationibus,’ ‘De Dissensione Paparum,’ ‘Cruciata,’ ‘De Christo et suo Adversario Anti-christo,’ ‘De Contrarietate Duorum Dominorum,’ ‘Quattuor Imprecationes,’ ‘De Anti-christo’ or ‘Opus Evangelicum,’ iii. 1384. There are also four volumes of ‘Sermones.’

All the above published works appear in the Wyclif Society publications except the ‘Trialogus,’ which has been edited by Lechler (Oxford, 1869), and the ‘De Officio Pastorali’ by the same editor (Leipzig, 1863). The more systematic theological works were intended to form part of a connected ‘Summa in Theologia,’ the ‘De Dominio Divino’ being intended as an introduction, and the following twelve books arranged as follows: ‘De Mandatis Divinis,’ ‘De Statu Innocentiæ,’ ‘De Dominio Civili,’ i. ii. iii., ‘De Veritate Sacræ Scripturæ,’ ‘De Ecclesia,’ ‘De Officio Regis,’ ‘De Potestate Papæ,’ ‘De Simonia,’ ‘De Blasphemia.’

For complete lists of the very numerous works attributed to Wycliffe reference should be made to Shirley's ‘Catalogue of the Works of John Wyclif,’ Oxford, 1856, and the old catalogues published in the ‘Polemical Works.’ The genuineness of some of the later tracts is no doubt unprovable, though they must have been produced under Wycliffe's immediate influence; but a strong and consistent tradition and the striking individuality of Wycliffe's style do not allow us to entertain a serious doubt about any of his more considerable writings. A few of the English works of the reformer were published early, especially the very popular tract known as ‘Wycliffe's Wycket’ (Nuremberg), 1546, and many subsequent editions; but all those which can with any probability be ascribed to the reformer are to be found in the following works: ‘Three Treatises of John Wycliffe, D.D.,’ ed. Todd, Dublin, 1851; the ‘Select English Works of Wyclif,’ edited by T. Arnold (Oxford, 1869–71), and ‘The English Works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted,’ by F. D. Matthew, London, 1880 (Early English Text Soc.), whose introduction is a valuable contribution to the biography of the reformer.

[The most important original authorities for Wycliffe's life are: the collection of documents and narratives about Wycliffe and Wycliffism called Fasciculi Zizaniorum, attributed to the Carmelite Thomas Netter of Walden (often styled Walden), ed. Shirley, London, 1858; the Chronicon Angliæ, auctore Monacho quodam Sancti Albani, ed. Maunde Thompson, London, 1874 (an early English translation of part of this work was published in Archæologia, 1844); the Historia Anglicana of Thomas Walsingham, ed. Riley, London, vol. iii. 1869, one of the numerous re-editings of the Chronicon Angliæ and the principal source of the accounts of Wycliffe till the recent recovery of the Chronicon Angliæ [see under art. Walsingham, Thomas]; the Chronicon of Henry Knighton, monk of Leicester, ed. Lumby, London, vol. ii. 1895, which supplements the Chronicon Angliæ, but is confused in chronology; it is, however, valuable as a Lancastrian corrective to the anti-Lancastrian St. Albans chroniclers, and as being written in the country most affected by Wycliffism. The Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum, London, vol. iii. 1863, is often very valuable for the general history (all the above are published in the Rolls Series). Other chronicles of course add details as to the general history, but not much about Wycliffe personally. Among the earlier scholars who have written on Wycliffe's Life, it will be enough to mention Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and An Apologie for John Wycliffe, showing his conformitie with the new Church of England, by Thomas James [q. v.], Oxford, 1608. Among more or less systematic biographies the most important are: Varillas's Histoire du Wiclefianisme, Lyons, 1682, translated by Earbery in The Pretended Reformers, London, 1717, a libel with a thin basis of garbled facts; Lewis's History of the Life and Sufferings of John Wycliffe, London, 1720 (other editions, London, 1723, Oxford, 1820); R. Vaughan's John de Wycliffe, D.D., a Monograph, London, 1853, and The Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe, London, 1828, add but little to Lewis; Shirley's valuable introduction to his edition of the Fasciculi Zizaniorum;}}